Aviation Experts: Need Your Help!

[AmateisGal]

I've been surfing on the Internet and just went to the library to try and find some answers to my questions (all related to my novel-in-progress), but I figured I'd also try the experts here at the Lounge.

Question #1

In 1944, if one flew from L.A. to Hartford, Connecticut, I assume they would make several stops - it wouldn't be a direct flight. I found a transcontinental DC-3 route map from the late 1930s that had a flight depart from Los Angeles, stop at Albuquerque, stop at Kansas City, stop at Pittsburgh, and then arrive in New York. Would this be the same in 1944? Approximately how long would this flight take?

And, would they fly into New York and then take a chartered flight to Hartford?

Question #2.

One of my characters is a former B-17 bomber pilot who now works for a private airline or business out of Hartford. I am totally clueless on this kind of stuff - but I'm assuming this business would be located at the airport. I'm thinking he flies cargo around New England or some type of transport business.

I got a great book at the library today called Wings of Yesteryears: The Golden Age of Private Aircraft that I think will help a lot as far as plane descriptions, uses, etc., but I'm interested in the types of business available at this time, what types of cargo might be transported, etc.

Whew! I realize that's a lot, but if any of you could help me out, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fletch]

Does your man have any kind of defense industry priority? Any long-distance travel was a tricky thing then due to fuel rationing. Railroads in particular were hellishly overcrowded, and I imagine air travel was a strictly VIP privilege.

If he still had some pull with the AAF he might have been able to hop a military flight of some kind to then Bradley Army Airfield, perhaps right from La Guardia or Newark if any Army planes were landing there.

Hartford had 2 small civilian fields then, Brainard and Rentschler, where your man's cargo business would have been based and where any charter flight would have landed.

Otherwise he might have been forced to train it or hitch with a motorist, perhaps arranging the latter thru the YMCA or similar organizations.

 

[AmateisGal]

Actually, a very VIP person is the one making the flight from California to Connecticut, so money wasn't an object.

The pilot lives in Hartford and is the one who has the business. Sorry if I wasn't clear earlier!

 

[Fletch]

Government clearances would have been the best way to get places then.

I don't know anything about civil cargo operations at the time, but presumably they would have been subject to the same priority restrictions as any transportation.